http://www.fired4u.co.uk en-gb fired4u.co.uk 2012-4-2T00:00:00Z fired4u.co.uk http://www.fired4u.co.uk/page39.htm#115746 I took a telephone call end of November 2011 and was asked could the BBC come to my studio with a local sports person and film a mystery guest slot for the Question of Sport programme. Quickly checking it wasnt the 1st of April and pinching myself I said yes.So the next Thursday 2 camera men and lots of lights turned up to take over the studio followed by Jenny Meadows known for the 800m and 4x400m relay together with her coach and her mum. Two hours of filming followed with every step being repeated and re filmed from a different angle at least three timesI showed Jenny how to make an easy clay bowl and then the crew filmed her making it. After this Jenny loaded the bowl into Katy the Kiln in real life the clay dish would not be fired for at least 2 weeks. Then Jenny was filmed taking a fired bowl out of the kiln and went of to paint it. Jenny Meadows making the clay bowl Jenny Meadows loading the kilnAfter a quick demo Jenny painted a ready made bowl with a hastily sket... 2012-4-2 14:53:19 http://www.fired4u.co.uk/page39.htm#97882 i2i contacted me at the end of June to ask if I could paint up plant pots suitable to have Bonsai trees in them. They were needed as a gift to a company they were making a pitch to to help grow the business whilst developing the team. Bonsai trees relate to the work which would be done should i2i be successful in their bid for the business. With a short lead time I was still able to source suitable pots drill drainage holes in them and paint them up with i2is logo website address the business logo of the company they were pitching to and their strapline. I assumed the Directors who would recieve these gifts to have lovely desks in their offices I suggested they needed painted trays to sit on so when watered it would not be all over the desks. Ten bowls and plates were ordered to accommodate the bonsai trees. So the pottery arrived and I painted for 2 days solid due to the short delivery time next time there will be more notice. Once I had painted glazed and fired them they were col... 2011-7-7 17:13:00 http://www.fired4u.co.uk/page39.htm#91739 This is another arm to our many options of ceramic art at Fired 4 U and one which is probably the least publicised for no reason other than its on the list somewhere to do. My Dad was helping to organise a Thank you dinner for all the helpers and trades people who had contributed to the refurbishment of their village hall in various ways at home in Northumberland. He thought one of our big signature plates 40cm would be great to have hanging on the wall but he wanted photos on it from the event. The way we produce the photo plates we can only go to the maximum diameter plate of 26cm so to save him the 3 hour drive to collect the plates I posted them over to him with the pencils to use. After the event the plates were posted back to me the packing box was beginning to tell a story of travel I then painted over the signatures painted on the name of the occasion and dates then added colour to the rim. Then the plates were glazed and fired. Following this I added the photog... 2011-4-14 16:16:53 http://www.fired4u.co.uk/page39.htm#88901 Im always thinking of how we can reach new customers so on this occassion wanting to promote our Hand painted wedding gifts I booked a table to exhibit at Samlesbury Hall Wedding fair at Samlesbury near Preston 6th March. This was all after many discussions with my team husband and business mentor looking at all the pros and cons of us going to a wedding fair. In advance I designed and had some new leaflets printed Special occasion gifts including weddings and on the reverse our Hen party options. Sprint print did a fabulous job at setting and printing the leaflets on a quick turn roundThen I did a few practice runs on how to best display my hand painted gifts on the table and how to decorate the table after all everyone else at the fair does this all the time and so I didnt want to appear unprepared Then at last 6th March arrived and I was prepared here is my table display in front of the huge old fire in the main hall. The day went really well and the G... 2011-3-10 12:14:55 http://www.fired4u.co.uk/page39.htm#86732 We ran our 1st Painting by Nipples night in October 2010 to increase awareness about Breast Cancer raise funds for Rosemere Cancer foundation in Preston and educate our lady customers in new knowledge of breast health and the importance of wearing the correct bra for you. We raised 163505 that night. One of our customers had friends who could not attend our October event at our studio so we ran a Breast painting night at her home in Garstang. I took the pottery painted samples and all that is needed to do the pottery painting then set up a mini studio in her kitchen. Explaining to the ladies the different ways which breast painting can be done and not surprisingly new ones were discovered on the night Pam had opened her bedrooms as painting rooms for the breast prints to be made in private. Then the ladies returned to the kitchen table grinning ready to convert the prints into pictures. Please note that Breast print painting is not compulsory and Ladies are welcome to do norma... 2011-2-11 12:06:24 http://www.fired4u.co.uk/page39.htm#82854 Saturday 11th December saw the rescue Fired 4 U team my husband and my mum as the studio was booked to the hilt Mel and Frankie were holding the fort there and I set off at 7.30am to Preston to attend the Christmas market with the potteryMy car was loaded up after the ice was scrapped off 3 it waswith folding chairs and stools 2 crates of painted pottery to sell Christmas tree decorations to be decorated with Foam Clay 4000g in various colours THE Picnic to feed an army for a week there was only 3 of use but had every flask full of hot water 2 boxes of sandwiches and then all sorts of snacks to keep us going The Gadget show supply of various hand warmers we had all rounded up charcoal skiing ones the re cycle ones you boil in a pan after use the once only use ones etc Banners and all the bits to put them up in various ways depending on the surface they ended up on And all the bits that might be useful We were dressed in thermals of all sorts you dont need all the details l... 2010-12-16 11:11:01 http://www.fired4u.co.uk/page39.htm#81982 Last week we had a team building session for the team at Blackburn Alarms . The gents had not been told what or where they were going. Daniel whose father set up the business wanted to give his team a new experience and make some personal mugs for the team to use at the office. Wish I had had a camera ready when they got out of the vans and Daniel walked them into my studio their faces were a picture Following a demo they got stuck in and really embraced the arty fun. Teasing each other over choice of colours and patterns and offering assistance at the same time. Short time later silence fell on the group as they concentrated on the matter in hand comments started flying and dont think you can use my mug mine its mine Are you sure its a caterpillar it looks like a sheep Just cos we call you T Rex you dont have to put one on the mug this was embellished with an explanation to me that he wasnt a dinosaur it was just he got called that as his arms were short. The finished ... 2010-12-3 15:34:10 http://www.fired4u.co.uk/page39.htm#76236 Last night I decided to bake some wheat and dairy free black treacle flap jacks as I have to cut these items out of my diet for the time being. I enjoy baking and have done for years but little did I know I had a time bomb in my kitchen. One of the ingredients to this recipe is black treacle I found a tin in the cupboard dated 2002 yes I know amazing how time flies and thought its only sugar itll be fine. I started to prise the lid off when bang I heard a loud noise like a gun going off at the same time something heavy smacked me in the face across my right eye. I found myself on the floor griping my face with wet hands. My eye was throbbing and the pain was sickening. I eventually opened my eye and I could see the relief was enormous. I looked around expecting to see a gun man in my kitchen no one there. The lid had flown off the tin of treacle hit my face and disappeared. My hands were wet with blood. I staggered to the toilet to look in the mirror the gash between ... 2010-9-24 11:01:25 http://www.fired4u.co.uk/page39.htm#72611 Last week was an amazing week so I thought Id share it with you. On Monday we had a group in from Mosaic community care who provide support for challenged young children to young adults ranging from autism to physical disabilities. They booked art and craft sessions daily for 2 weeks with us. This was the beginning of their second week. They were using foam clay to coat wooden figures designing the clothes as they coated them. So Mel and Ciara were looking after them and other customers whilst I had the pleasure of going to Astley village community centre to entertain 15 disabled children age 1015yrs with a wide range of disabilities. They loved painting the mugs I provided them with and couldnt wait to put their names on. I returned mid lunch time to the studio unloaded the car and caught up with the activities there. We had a gentle stream of customers all day and the Mosaic group painted animal money boxes after lunch then added decorations to their wooden people before going ho... 2010-8-11 21:00:59 http://www.fired4u.co.uk/page39.htm#71018 One Monday early in July Mel and I set off and found our way to Altham St James C of E Primary School.Prior to this exciting day I had sketched out a Wind in the Willows design onto 60 tiles to make a picture which is going to be mounted in the School entrance. Each tile was numbered so they could be put back together in the right order. We started off with 37 Juniors divided into work groups to add detail to the more intricate areas surrounding the main Characters Toad and his hall Mole and his underground house Ratty in his boat and river bank house and Badger looking from his burrow. The big Willow tree formed another group and the cheekynaughty Weasels another. The children instantly drew added details onto the designs talked about colours to use and how the tiles in their group would fir back together to make a continuous picture. Here are the Juniors concentrating on the design session After morning break we got down to the painting af... 2010-7-22 12:08:24 http://www.fired4u.co.uk/page39.htm#68873 So the Children from Belarus arrived last Monday and I have only now found time to tell you all about it. We My husband and I were so excited on Monday we had to find ourselves jobs to fill in the time to keep us occupied. At 1.45pm I dropped him off at the meeting point for those going to collect the children from the airport and I went off to do the food shopping. Shopped via the list and managed to drive off from the supermarket without getting cream for the strawberries Went to the corner shop and had to be shouted back as I left it on the counter. Hastily unpacked it all checking the mobile for a text finally it arrived arrived safely all well on the way to the welcome tavern I jumped on the kitchen floor and shocked our cats. An hour until they arrive. finally I went to the welcome Tavern and was on the way in when I heard a noise and there was the bus dashed back to the car for the camera and went to meet the children. I tried very hard not to cry but they were runnin... 2010-6-26 11:50:44 http://www.fired4u.co.uk/page39.htm#68413 So I woke up this morning stirred a bit and shouted They are coming tomorrow and so is Alina good job my husband was awake. His reply was Are you sure because for months you have said oh they are coming soon and they havent appeared Yes I am sure tomorrow is the tomorrow they are arriving I said. I felt so EXCITED I scrunched my self up and wiggled about with a grin the width of my face. So its tomorrow Monday 21st June 2010 at 3.15pm ish to be precise our 14 children will arrive from Belarus where they live in the chernobyl radiation affected areas read my previous post for more info. Most will leave home tonight and board a train just after midnight with a parent to make the journey to Minsk airport to fly to us tomorrow afternoon a journey of 8 hours of more for some just to get to the plane Our Alina will meet them at the airport. Alina is a wonderful person who this time last year was just a name lady aged 24 called Alina who would be staying with us and being the parent gu... 2010-6-20 12:59:02 http://www.fired4u.co.uk/page39.htm#68138 This Blog is not about my pottery studio or what we do but about me and what I do in my spare time. I volunteer with a local Charity group called Medicine amp Chernobyl UK South Ribble group I am also the fund raising coordinator. We collectively aim to raise 1631214000 per year to bring a group of children from Belarus who live in the radiation affected areas from the nuclear power plant explosion at Chernobyl 24 years ago. In brief the children live with radiation in the air they breathe the water they drink and the food they eat this all has an affect on their health from causing very weak immune systems to childhood cancer to cancer in early late 20s. I will at some point may be write about their lives or the new found problems with the long term radiation in their lives and what we do to try and help. We bring over a group of 14 children to stay with the families in our group for a month it has been proved that living in clean air yes here in Preston with clean food and w... 2010-6-16 22:04:16 http://www.fired4u.co.uk/page39.htm#67078 Today found me waking up knowing I was going on BBC Radio Lancashire in the afternoon on the live show with Sean McGinty to talk about my Fired 4 U Blog and pottery painting of course. I felt excited and nervous all at the same time. Once at work I was straight into a Birthday party and then planning what we needed for the Hen party tonight so that took my mind off my radio appearance a bit. Sean found us listed in the creative bloggers section of httpblogpreston.co.uk and invited me onto his Saturday afternoon summer show. Would I please take something for him to paint so he could have a go he asked. So off I went this afternoon armed with a large pint size mug paints and brushes and spare plates and brushes as of course theres no sink in the studio to use for washing your painting tools as you go along. I left Mel looking after the studio so I could go out. Once settled into the recording part of the studio Sean introduced me and Fired 4 U talking about Blog Preston whic... 2010-6-5 19:01:02 http://www.fired4u.co.uk/page39.htm#66075 A few weeks ago I took a Call from BBC radio Lancashire would I go on air and do clay hand prints with Brett Davison on the tea time show He was covering the news of Anton Du Beke having a fitting a Louis Tussauds at Blackpool and want to create an impression of himself live on air too So of course I said yes. I prepared before going by rolling out the clay in advance to make life a bit easier It took me 2 gos to roll out a piece of clay big enough as I am so used to doing babies from 7 days upwards never done an adults and certainly not a lovely man from Yorkshire with big hands So big infact the clay just fitted on my drying boards with not much to spare. Brett was a delight to meet and we did great impressions of his hands in the clay. They dried out nicely then I fired them. Brett then came down to the studio so watch me paint them up whilst he interviewed me asking how I got into doing Fired 4 U. Brett of course got hooked on Fired 4 U and returned to collect his finished ha... 2010-5-25 11:23:32 http://www.fired4u.co.uk/page39.htm#63907 Sunday 25th of April was a big event for Fired 4 U we were attending the Croston Arts Festival the first of its kind. It started off as a celebration with a village school and art and escalated to all sorts of art activities and events taking place all over the village. So on Saturday when the last customer left the studio I loaded up the car with all the pottery and paints and then table and chairs and the important bucket to wash up in and bottles of water to wash up and paint with. Sunday came and with my husband we set off for Croston and arrived there midday to set up outside in the Crofter Arboretum yes outside in the open air in a lovely setting with daffodils everywhere and blossom on the trees and not forgetting the big black clouds above. No rain for about a week or more and today it had to forecast 70 chance of rain great Here is Fired 4 U set up in this lovely surrounding with a make shift paint station on the curb by the out door class room you can see over on ... 2010-4-26 19:45:45 http://www.fired4u.co.uk/page39.htm#63509 On Monday 19th April I had lots of fun in the afternoon with the Mums and toddlers group at Clayton Brook run by Home start. I am a member of the South Ribble Arts Forum and they are holding a big event for families on May Day Bank Holiday Monday 3rd May. To encourage people to go to the event they are doing arty crafty sessions with different local groups to encourage them to visit the event its self. My brief to make some May Day bunting with the group children age few weeks to 5 years Theres a challenge in itself with such a wide age range. There could be 1530 children attending and you have about an hour and twenty mins to work with them before they change activities So there was another challenge. So after racking my brain and waiting for inspiration to strike I came up with plain white bunting and hand prints done with fabric paint then paint the group name and logo along the bottom of the bunting putting a letter in each point. I bought the bunting as I didnt have time to ma... 2010-4-21 15:30:09 http://www.fired4u.co.uk/page39.htm#62978 Tara of httpstickyfingers1.blogspot.com is running a blog Gallery and this week the subject to write about is JOY. This is my joy my customers pottery having been glazed now waiting to be fired and read on why this brings me joy Last week was full of Joy for me it all came from my customers being amazed at their achievements or enjoying the new experience. On Good Friday a family came in for the first time mum dad daughter and baby of 19 months they came back last Friday to collect the finished pottery. Mum couldnt believe how lovely her daughters plate was and was blown away by the Easter bunny painted by her youngest and thanked me profusely. I only gave direction and glazed it but the joy on her face was thanks enough. We had a group of children in each day supported by Mosaic community care the children are mostly autistic to varying degrees or have sight or hearing difficulties. I cant name them but A arrived not wishing to stay on Wednesday as he doesnt like unfamili... 2010-4-13 22:23:07 http://www.fired4u.co.uk/page39.htm#61374 Back in January just after the snow had gone I went down stairs for Breakfast to find a black envelope on the door mat with silver writing all over it Mmm I thought maybe a party invite On opening it I was shocked to find it was an invitation to a Silver Wedding Isnt that what your parents go to or does this mean Im a little bit older than I think I am After this age shock wake up call early in the morning I thought ooh what to give as a present being the anniversary of my husbands cousin and his wife I thought to paint a gift would be appropriate being as I am Fired 4 U after all. Now as we sadly dont get home to the north east very often whilst I thought about a signature plate a plate signed by your friends and family with their kind thoughts and a personalised design in the centre I thought not practical as it could be another year before they get it back to them Various other ideas flew through my head but I have to say I kept coming back to the signature plate idea. My husband Bo... 2010-3-25 10:56:00 http://www.fired4u.co.uk/page39.htm#60305 I find the way in which we function and view the role art in our lives very interesting. You will have heard people talk about the right and left side of the brain and how this determines how you function. The right side of the brain controls your left side of your body and vice versa but it is also the more creative thinking side of the brain too. This doesnt mean you are more arty than others if your right side is more dominant it just means you have a more creative approach to life and your interpret colours and patterns in a different way to those who use the right side of their brain more. Take this test and see which side of your brain is dominant and see if the traits it shows are true are not you have to answer the questions honestly and quickly to get a true result. httpwww.wherecreativitygoestoschool.comvancouverleftrightrbtest.htm My results was that I use my right side 55 of the time and my left 45 of the time I have learnt to move from one side to the other depending ... 2010-3-11 11:29:43 http://www.fired4u.co.uk/page39.htm#59935 Hello My name is Sarah and I blog over at The Fifth Street Palace as well as The Fifth Street Academy. Jane has graciously let me take over her blog today with a fun tshirt stenciling tutorial. So with out further ado here we go Materials tshirt printer freezer paper you can purchase it from amazon or some craft shops exacto knife cutting surface fabric paint sponge brush card stock iron Step 1 Choose an image that will not be too difficult to cut and print it onto the dull side of the freezer paper. Step 2 Cut out the black parts using the exacto knife. Be sure you have a cutting surface underneath so you dont cut your table. Your stencil should now look like this. Step 3 Plave the stencil shiny side down on your tshirt and iron. Step 4 Squirt a dab of paint onto a sponge brush. Step 5 Quite liberally fill in the stencil with paint. Yes I did get a little on the edge. I ended up stenciling 2 butterflies to cover up my mistake. Ste... 2010-3-7 00:02:52 http://www.fired4u.co.uk/page39.htm#59933 Hi I have been exploring Twitter and found a tweet asking for people to sign up to swop a blog for a day and be a guest on your blog. So I was paired up with Sarah Scott www.sarahlscott.blogspot.com she lives in canada with her family and has a passion for crafts and keeping fit. Look out for her tutorial on T Shirt painting 2010-3-6 23:46:34 http://www.fired4u.co.uk/page39.htm#59717 I was born in Corbridge and grew up in Northumberland in a family home surrounded by arty crafty influences. Both parents were very creative and even went to pottery evening classes when I was very young Art always featured somewhere in our days whether it be play early on on the clarty table my brother and I could make as much mess as we wanted as long as it was on our little table which Dad made us known as the clarty table or sketching what we saw on holiday and always only because we wanted to. At school I hadnt a clue what I wanted to do and when choosing my O levels art and textiles were pushed out to make way for French as it was important to have a language in your choices back then. Little did I know what I would end up doing many years later So eventually I went to Huddersfield Polytechnic as after working in the local hotel in my village I decided a carer in hotel management was going to be my thing. Left poly had various jobs all over the place and loved them all. Joined... 2010-3-3 21:08:48